Givvy is one of the three “Main Dish” presenters at tonight’s WebInnovators Group organized by Venrock VC David Beisel. The event kicks off at 6:30 tonight at the Royal Sonesta Hotel across from the Cambridgeside Galleria (a good place to park). Hope to see you there!
Join Us at WebInno Tonight
September 15, 2008
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Launch, startup | Tagged: beisel, charity, giving, givvy, Launch, venrock, webinnovator | 
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Posted by John Treadway
Givvy at TechCrunch50 on CNET TV
September 11, 2008It was a great three days at TechCrunch50. We met some great people doing very innovative work, and got a lot of positive feedback on Givvy. Congratulations to Heather, Mike, Jason Calacanis, and the entire the TechCrunch team for a wonderful event.
On Tuesday we were in the DempPit and got visited by Rafe Needleman from WebWare/CNET TV. Here’s the video.
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startup | Tagged: cnet, cnettv, demopit, givvy, techcrunch, techcrunch50, webware | 
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Posted by John Treadway
Givvy Charitable Giving Site Launches at TechCrunch50
September 9, 2008- Ushers In A New Era of Charitable Giving -
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – September 9, 2008 –At TechCrunch50 today, Givvy, Inc. launched Givvy™, a new online service to improve the charitable giving experience for millions of donors. Givvy (www.givvy.com) is the first site to align the charitable interests and passions of donors with an integrated framework to plan, research and execute their charitable giving. Serving the needs of those desiring more control over their giving, Givvy is a free, feature-rich, and easy-to-use site with data on more than 1.4 million IRS charities and provides a centralized repository for all a donor’s giving records.
“We created Givvy to help all donors be more effective and achieve greater satisfaction through their charitable giving,” said John Treadway, founder and CEO of Givvy, Inc. “Before Givvy, most donors did not have the information, guidance and support enjoyed by wealthy philanthropists. Now, everybody can increase the impact and scope of their giving with confidence and the support of the community of Givvy users.”
Key features of Givvy include:
- “Givving Plan” – Givvy helps you create a “Givving Plan” to guide your giving activities, with goals for amount donated, types of causes supported, and more. The “Givving Plan” is your roadmap for giving.
- Donation Processing by Network for Good – All donations on Givvy are processed by Network for Good (www.networkforgood.org), one of the leading donation processing services. Your donations through Network for Good, a 501c3 nonprofit, are totally secure, and are immediately tax-deductible (check with your tax advisor).
- Charity Portfolio – This patent-pending Givvy feature helps you create a portfolio of charities where you control the donation amount and timing of your donations, the organizations you want to support, and the percentage allocation of donations across your charities.
- Member Funds – Givvy member funds are collections of charities that other donors can use in their portfolios. For example, a children’s cancer member fund with several related charities can be created and shared with other Givvy users who want to support this cause but don’t know which organizations to support.
- External Donations – Now you can see all of your donations in one place by recording those made outside of Givvy with our “Record External Donation” feature. Whether made at another site, through the mail, over the phone, or in-person, recording donations in Givvy gives you a more complete view of your giving.
- Donation Reports – Quickly get a view of your “giving footprint” with Givvy’s donation reports. See all of your donations by date, charity and cause type in any time frame, and chart donations against your Givving Plan. You can also print or email a year-end report for your taxes.
- Donation Privacy Settings – Share your personal information with only the charities you want to receive it, and donate anonymously to all of the other organizations you support. Put an end to endless telemarketing, mail solicitations and email campaigns from charities.
- Givvy Network – Give better with help from your friends and family. Connect with people on Givvy who share your charitable interests, help others discover charities you support, and invite friends to join Givvy.
- GivvyBase – The core charity data comes from GivvyBase, our free and open-source nonprofit database. GivvyBase includes data on all 1.4 million IRS-registered nonprofits. Features of GivvyBase include:
- Free – all of the data in GivvyBase is free and accessible to anybody
- Searchable – our integrated search function makes finding your charities easy and fast
- User-Editable – registered users can maintain and update the database with content, tags, star ratings & reviews, and more
About Givvy, Inc.
Founded in December, 2007, Givvy, Inc. is delivering new and compelling solutions for donors to improve their charitable giving. Givvy seeks to provide highly functional tools that are easy to use, increase productivity for donors, and result in better giving for our members. Givvy – Better Givving for a Better World™
Contact:
John Treadway
Givvy, Inc.
617/290-3955
jtreadway@givvy.com
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Features, Fundraising, News & Events, startup | Tagged: giving, givvy, Launch, press, techcrunch, techcrunch50 | 
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Posted by John Treadway
Best Taglines vs. Better Givving for a Better World?
July 17, 2008Nancy Schwartz just awarded winners in her “best taglines” contest – Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards. In general, most company taglines – nonprofit or for profit – are worthless. A tagline should relate to your mantra or vision about what you want to be. “Ultimate Driving Machine” from BMW is a great example of a tagline that has stood the test of time. Contrast that with Nissan’s “SHIFT_” which requires a whole paragraph to explain on their corporate Web site. You know that tagline won’t last. Heck, I had to look it up because I couldn’t remember anything other than it was lame.
Many of the pick’s from Nancy’s list are actually quite good. My favorite is “Stay Close…Go Far” from East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania – perhaps tied with “Whatever it takes to save a child” from UNICEF. You can go to school here and go a long way in life. Yeah, I like that. Or, we’ll move heaven, earth and anything else that gets in our way to save a child. Powerful!
Some others are a bit underwhelming – like “The Art of Active Aging” from EngAGE. It’s okay. Then there’s “All Building Starts with a Foundation” by Building Future Builders. Cute, but not emotionally engaging.
So that got me to thinking about our tagline – “Better Givving for a Better World.” We are trying to make it easier for people to give better – more effectively – which can have a positive impact on the world. I’m too close to really evaluate it. Does it do the trick? Is the “v v” treatment in Givving too much, or does it help reinforce the Givvy brand? Is it on par with some of the taglines on Nancy’s list?
Person Nancy Schwartz
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1 Comment | Givving is Broken, startup | Tagged: branding, marketing, taglines | Permalink
Posted by John Treadway
Presentation Zen…
June 26, 2008While waiting for the development team to post an update I caught up on some of my blogs that I don’t get to very often. On of these, Presentation Zen, is truly excellent and should be on anybody’s “must read” list if they give or help prepare presentations.
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Posted by John Treadway
A late night before the demo…
June 26, 2008We’ve got a big demo tomorrow and are working frantically to fix bugs and spruce it up. Typical startup stuff. Fortunately here in Framingham we have lots of food options for the late night. Unfortunately the chicken fajita roll-up I just ate was not good. Way too much oil on the grill. Oh well, can’t let it slow me down.
Back to my job as lead QA engineer. The site is looking pretty slick, IMHO.
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Posted by John Treadway
Ben Casnocha: America and High Tech Entrepreneurship
May 8, 2008One of the blogs I like to read is from Ben Casnocha – a guy who started his first company at age 14 and knows just about everybody in Silicon Valley. He’s now 20 or so an in college and just wrote an article for the U.S. State Department on high tech entrepreneurship and what policies and cultural attitudes in America enable the creation of new businesses. Here’s his post on his blog about this article: Ben Casnocha: America and High Tech Entrepreneurship.
Here’s a key excerpt:
America’s cultural attitudes are even more important to its entrepreneurial success. In the United States, if you have the courage to start a business, you are celebrated and you are encouraged. You are seen as an innovator, a pioneer, a successful rebel. If you fail — and there’s a good chance you will if you start your own business — most Americans will shrug it off as a learning opportunity. There’s no shame in failing. Families, schools, and the media alike share this acceptance of failure.
Wow – I wish the world was like this when I was 20 (hint: first term for Reagan). I was a Junior at UConn and nobody I knew started businesses. In fact, very few of the adults I knew had their own businesses. Sure, some retailers and small business guys – but real ventures? Nope. When I went to NYC to work at Chase Manhattan Bank, I was following a typical path. I actually started getting the e-bug in the mid-1980’s and took a course at Harvard Extension on starting a business sometime in the late 80’s. But still I hesitated… none of my friends started businesses and when I said I wanted to they all shook their heads and muttered something about stability, etc.
Boy were they wrong!! Most of these guys have been laid off not once, but several times. My lovely wife Susan has been a company person for her whole career. She’s one of the survivors at First Marblehead after they laid off more than half of the company on Monday. In her career she has been fortunate, but she has seen many people lose great high-paying jobs at great companies, only to find their career options more and more limiting as head into their late 40’s and 50’s.
My biggest regret as an entrepreneur is that I didn’t start 20 years ago. It’s never too late – really – but it is a lot harder with a mortgage, 2 kids, etc. If you’re looking for safe and steady – startups ain’t it. But then again, that can be said for a lot of people toiling at large companies too…
I got my first taste starting up Financial Fusion from within Sybase in late 1999 as part of a team lead by Michon Schenck, a good friend and very talented executive (and Givvy board member). When the tech market cratered in 2001/2002, Michon left for IDC and I finally made my move and started Digibug. In many ways Digibug was not the success I had hoped for. However, our investors got their money back, I got back the cash I put in, and we sold the assets to a competitor last month. Plus, I got a huge amount of very valuable experience. We’ll call it a wash.
With Givvy we’ve got a far larger market opportunity, virtually no competition today, and I am fortunate to have a great (albeit small) team to work with. Most importantly – we’re building something that people really can use to better their impact on the world through giving. We have our very own mantra – “better giving” – and a real chance to make a difference. Hopefully we’ll have a success too, but right now we’re having fun!
2 Comments | startup | Tagged: Better Giving, casnocha, entrepreneurship, startup | Permalink
Posted by John Treadway
Partner License Money…
March 20, 2008A key partner we need to execute the site is looking for over $35k to use their API every year, plus an $8,000 set up fee. We’re bootstrapped and need to conserve cash. Aside from the fact that I find it hard to see how it costs them $35k per year to support a partner (they are a nonprofit, btw), I just don’t have the money right now. Time to negotiate… I was hoping to pay them less than $10k this year – less than 25% of what they want. Fingers crossed.
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Posted by John Treadway
Survey Says…
January 23, 2008It’s a winner!
That’s what the survey results say about Givvy. We did a survey of 102 people and over 51% rated themselves as “Enthusiastic” about the concept. Only 8% rated themselves as “Resistors” who would not use us. The remainder fell into that netherworld of neutral – or in politics “undecided!” All we have to do is respond to the chief reservations of the “Neutrals” and we should be able to bring more into the “Enthusiasts” camp. Fortunately, the main objections are all easily handled in the implementation and communication plan.
Onward, forward, upward!
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Posted by John Treadway
Space & Time…
January 2, 2008Givvy is in the market for a space for the team to work. We want to spend as little as possible, without being in a hovel of course. The SV guys have it easy – they can work out of their garages 12 months of the year. Here in New England, there are about 3 weeks in any given year where a garage can be used as an office. If we were 23 it would also be easier – no kids in the living room etc. Alas, we’re mostly all a bit older, with families etc. and cannot use “mom’s living room” as our start up space.
The incubators – like the Cambridge Innovation Center in Kendall Square – are too expensive. You get a lot, but it’s not cheap. I recall a 10×10 room at the CIC I saw where they wanted over $1,000 per month. Plus, there are no good incubator spaces in the Metro West area that I can find. Kendall Square is just to hard to get to for some of our team.
We looked at some space in the Framingham/Mass Pike area on Monday – closer to our budget but not as cheap as I’d like (free or no more than $500/month would be perfect!).
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Posted by John Treadway
